Chain snatchers, auto robbers back on city streets; police slow to react

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar

Criminals who had gone quiet for a while auto-rickshaw robbers and chain snatchers are back in action, even as local police and the crime branch appear sluggish in their response.

Contractor Devdas Kadam (55) boarded an auto from the railway station to Beed Bypass on July 25, around 10.30 pm. Instead of heading home, the driver took him on a three-hour ride across the city before stopping in Pisadevi, where he and an accomplice stabbed and robbed Kadam of his mobile phone, Rs 4,000, and wristwatch. Kadam lodged a complaint with Cidco Police the next day. In another blow to public safety, chain snatchers struck twice within 15 minutes on August 7 in Ulkanagari and Seven Hills. Around 8 pm, bike-borne thieves snatched a 5-gram pendant from a teacher’s wife after failing to take her mangalsutra. Minutes earlier, they had robbed a 60-year-old woman of a one-tola mangalsutra near Vitthal Temple. Police confirmed both incidents were the handiwork of the same duo.